Your Spine, Your Yoga is arguably the first book that looks at the
spine from both the Western anatomical/biomechanical point of view
and the modern yoga perspective. It is filled with detail,
discussion, illustrations, and practical advice for spines of all
types. This emphasis on variety is welcome and necessary: no two
spines are exactly alike, and no two people have the same biology
and biography. What your spine is able to do may be vastly
different from what other yoga students' or teachers' spines can
do. The human spine is unique in its structure and function.
Primarily, it provides stability through the core of our body,
allowing forces to be transmitted from the upper body (arms and
shoulders) to the lower body (pelvis and legs) and vice versa.
Secondarily, the spine allows tremendous range of movement.
Unfortunately, in modern yoga practice we find the primacy of these
two functions reversed, with flexibility prized over stability.
This focus on spinal mobility comes at a grave cost to many
students. Stability is lost, and when that happens, dysfunction and
pain often follow. Just as all tissues and areas of the body need a
healthy amount of stress to regain and maintain optimal health, so
too our spine needs the appropriate levels of stress to remain
functional throughout our lives. How we choose to exercise the
spine makes a difference, though. Knowing the way the spine is
built, specifically, how your spine is built, will allow you to
tailor your exercises wisely to match your goals. Your Spine, Your
Yoga is the second book in the Your Body, Your Yoga series and
focuses on the axial body the core, from the sacral complex, which
includes the pelvis, sacrum, and sacroiliac joint, through the
lumbar and thoracic segments of the spine, to the cervical complex,
which includes the neck and head. The structural components of each
segment are examined: from the bones, to the joints, ligaments,
fascia, tendons, muscles, and even the neurological and blood
systems. The range and implications of human variations are
presented, as well as the ways these variations may affect
individual yoga practices. The sources of restrictions to movement
are investigated through answering the question "What Stops Me?"
The answers presented run through a spectrum, beginning with
various types of tensile resistance to three kinds of compressive
resistance. Whether the reader is a novice to yoga, anatomy, or
both, or a seasoned practitioner with an in-depth knowledge in
these fields, this book will be valuable. For the novice, there are
easily understood illustrations and photographs, as well as
sidebars highlighting the most important topics. For the anatomy
geek, other sidebars focus on the complexity of the topic, with
hundreds of references provided for further investigation. For the
yoga teacher, sidebars suggest how to bring this knowledge into the
classroom. Your Spine, Your Yoga can be used as a resource when
specific questions arise, as a textbook to be studied in detail, or
as a fascinating coffee-table book to be browsed at leisure for
topics of current interest.
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